I recently bought a 2007 Pontiac G5 2 door (my first car ) and am loving the way it drives so far. The steering control is phenomenal and driving stick is so much fun! I learned stick in half an hour and within a day or two riding I had it down pretty well.

The only problem that I have with the car is the audio. Because it is a base model, meaning nothing special, it didn't come with the greatest speakers. I was wondering what brand of speakers you would suggest. I'm not looking to spend too much money, but something that would tighten up the mids and highs (and maybe give a little more power to the lows) would be great.

Another thing I would like to ask is, what is the best placement of a subwoofer in a car? I searched in google and it said that the typical placement of a subwoofer is in the trunk of the car, positioning it to whatever sounds best to you (blasting to the rear, upwards, etc.). However, I do have a bit of room above the rear seats, but I'm wondering if having them face upwards against the glass is such a good idea, and it also seems like some cutting would have to be done.

And if it helps at all, my main genre of music is electronic types like drum 'n' bass and electro house. I do listen to rock as well.

Get a good aftermarket radio, with plenty of adjustments, then some decent mid- to upper-range speakers that fit your car. Soundproof whatever you can, especially in the trunk - where the subwoofer should go. The sub doesn't have to point in any particular direction to sound good, so place it where its the least obstrusive.

The entire interior of my car has padding on all the metal parts. I pulled out the seats and carpet, covered the floor, the insides of the doors and especially the trunk on all sides. The result is a clean and tight sound, with plenty of power and very good clairty - but not very expensive. Don't you dynamat for sound deadening unless you want to go broke. I used a roofing material called "Resisto" (Resist-eau -french) its waterproof, self adhesive and about a 1/4'' thick. Prevents rattling and deadens the noise decently.

Now as for a deck, are they essential? I know that they provide way more functionality than the dashes that come stock, such as full fledged equalizers and settings beyond my imagination. But the problem with the deck I have in my car is that it's massive:

Now as for a deck, are they essential? I know that they provide way more functionality than the dashes that come stock, such as full fledged equalizers and settings beyond my imagination. But the problem with the deck I have in my car is that it's massive:

Are there even ones made that big, or do most people just have an empty space below the deck?

Might need an adapter or faceplate. Check a good car audio place to see what "dash kits" they have.
A regular car radio is going to sound like garbage, and ironically, even worse with aftermarket speakers.
Why? Because the stock speakers aren't designed for power or quality, theyre normally high efficiency speakers that only use about 15-25w rms - the exact same amount of power that most regular decks can provide. Aftermarket speakers will run in the area of 40-75w rms, so if you use aftermaket speakers with the stock radio, they wont be getting enough power. The result will be speakers that lack bass (which require more power and less efficient than highs/treble). You COULD get a converter, which will bring the regular speaker outputs down to standard line-level outputs, and then connect that to an amplifier with some treble/bass/mid/sweep/etc settings on it for some improvement, but it will be harder to adjust and you wont get the quality of a good deck out of it (and you have to buy an amp too).

You still haven't told us how much you want to spend. Hell you might not even be able to remove the stock deck. A lot of new cars need the deck to be relocated. If this is what is needed, then stop now.

Not all stock decks sound bad either. The absolute best thing to do if you are on a budget is just get a small quality amp and sub. Then use a high level input off your rear speakers. You could always throw some 100 mF capacitors on each of the stock speakers. This will cut anything lower than 100Hz w/ a 6dB/octave rolloff. Should cut distortion considerably.

Depending on what the car will take I typically like running 6" coaxials in the front with a 10" sealed sub in the back. 100WRMS for the sub and 25-50WRMS for the 2 fronts. Also, lowfat recommended capacitors for a HPF, that's very desireable, especially if you have a sub. With a 6" you could probably get away with cutting it off a little lower than 100hz at that steep of a slope... you'd have to base it off the speakers you end up getting.

Alrighty. Sounds like I need to plan this out a little more. I went into Best Buy (I know, not the best place to get advice. I was buying a game for my Xbox and decided to check it out), and he said that the Pontiac G5 would need a whole new wiring scheme (for safety, wtf?) for $150. That sounded like a scam to me, so I just kept looking at what Alpine had to offer.

I'll bump this thread up when I think I've found a good setup. From there you will know my budget :).

And yes enaberif I was going to get an 8", maybe 10" if I really think I need that big of one.

Alrighty. Sounds like I need to plan this out a little more. I went into Best Buy (I know, not the best place to get advice. I was buying a game for my Xbox and decided to check it out), and he said that the Pontiac G5 would need a whole new wiring scheme (for safety, wtf?) for $150. That sounded like a scam to me, so I just kept looking at what Alpine had to offer.

I'll bump this thread up when I think I've found a good setup. From there you will know my budget :).

And yes enaberif I was going to get an 8", maybe 10" if I really think I need that big of one.

Its not a scam.

A lot of the electronics run through the headunit or some wonky thing like that.. its a Pontiac/GM/Chevy thing.